Forbiden Love
by I am Alice Cullen
Summary: Kagome, unwillingly betrothed to Sesshoumaru, falls for her cousin Kikyo's Finance Inuyasha after finding him injured and helpless on the beach. But can true love conquer duty to country, rivalry and dispute? Will Inuyasha and Kagome ever get together? R


Do you ever get the feeling that you're life is like a story? You know, sometimes good things happen and sometimes bad things happen but in the end it always works out. You get a wonderful guy to hold and care for you, or you accidently stumble upon some treasure that guarantees your happiness and welfare for the rest of your life. Or maybe the things that happen in your life are occurrences that seem to only happen in story books, like 'love at first sight'.

My life is like a story, it seems. It hasn't exactly been a good one so far. Sure, I've had good things happen to me. I guess you could say that being born into the Royal family of Shikon is a significantly good thing that was bestowed upon me. I guess it's true in a way. I don't have to wait very long to get food and I never run into the problem of having nothing to wear. Oh, and I don't have to clean my room – though sometimes I do lose things because the maids put my stuff in unknown places sometimes.

But just because I'm a princess doesn't mean I'm getting the fairy tale story that princesses are commonly believed to have.

My older cousin Kikyo might be getting that, but not me. She's what my parents would call the 'perfect child'. She follows whatever my parents say. I'm not talking about the orders all parents give like 'go to bed' or 'eat your vegetables', I'm talking about the way my parents run their country. I guess the way they run it is alright, but there could be some major improvement. See, my parents don't agree with me. So over the years I really haven't been looking forward to taking over a kingdom.

Especially since the kingdom I'm to inherit isn't even my own.

See, the story books will tell you that the princess or the prince marries because he or she is in love, not because their parents are forcing them to. Example; the prince in Snow White finds Snow White, falls in love 'at first sight', then later he kisses her, thus breaking the magic spell because they were in love. Nice story, right?

But would people have liked the story if he'd fallen for Snow White but said, "Sorry, can't marry you; I'm going to go marry some girl my parents picked out for me."? Probably not.

But you see that's exactly what's happening in my life right now—minus me being in love with someone already. And it's been going on once every year for the past fifteen years. My 'fiancé', prince "Sesshoumaru" isn't even human. He's the son of some mighty demon lord and is the heir to the demon lands. Normally I don't mind what people are so long as they don't try to eat one another – I'm serious about that; some of the subject I'll be ruling over apparently think humans are tasty—but Sesshoumaru isn't what you'd call…'Prince Charming'.

He's never smiled. He hardly ever talks to me. He does whatever he can to avoid me – unless we get stuck together at a ball, then he has to court me and act like he's totally into me…which he doesn't do a very good job of, since he still acts as emotionless as ever while he's doing it – and from what I've heard, he doesn't even want to marry a human.

But when I pointed that out to my parents, all I got was "We must keep the alliance or our people will be eaten ruthlessly."

Thanks mom and dad for making me marry into such a wonderful family with so much confidence on what their EATING habits are. Truly, you must truly care for me.

Not.

They care for my cousin who acts like this perfect angel in front of them and then tries to make my life miserable when they're not around. She and her fiancé are supposed to take Shikon.

How is that supposed to work?

I don't know. All it says is that my parents officially want nothing to do with me as soon as possible. Even though frankly I'm not even that bad. I just wanted to help my people.

Another thing they don't tell you in stories; princesses can't ever share their own opinion without getting the evil eye from their parents…

Particularly mom.

But whatever. The point is, though some people get happy endings, so far it doesn't look like that's what I'm going to get, despite what people think should happen.

Who knows, maybe one day I'll be able to handle being married to a emotionless demon who could care less about my welfare. Maybe one day I'll even be able to bear having his children.

But as of right now, with my wedding only a few months away, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon.

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The wind blew into my face as I galloped my horse over the wet beach, the wind playing with my long, ebony black hair. Sometimes it would kick a bit of sand into my face, making me close my wide blue grey eyes to keep it from irritating them. I wrapped my cloak closer to my body, keeping myself warm from the cool weather.

I slowed my horse to a halt, taking a quick look around me. It seemed that I'd lost my royal 'consorts'. Finally, time to be alone. One of the worst things about being royal was that I hardly ever had any time to be alone. The only time it was ever quiet and lonely was when I was sleeping in my room. But even then you could sometimes hear guards patrolling the halls.

But it was nice to get away for a while, especially when I was getting away to the beach. I never knew why, but the ocean always seemed to calm my frazzled nerves. Just gazing out at the rising tide at the sun set was making me feel a little better about my various problems. I looked far out to the west where the sea stretched on and on, almost as though it never ended. When I looked out there…I saw freedom. I didn't know what lay out there, but whatever it was it must have been better than what was here.

I sighed, remembering about what I was going to do within a few months time, looking off to the north at The Land of the Demons across the channel that separated it from Shikon. I'd be their princess in not too much time.

I sighed again, turning away from the sea and nudging my horse to walk forward, in no hurry to get back to the castle. So mom and dad would be mad. Who cared? It's not like that would be a significant change in my life if they yelled at me….now if they locked me in the dungeon, now that would be a little different.

As I rode, my eyes drifted to the wet sand beneath me. Sunlight sparkled off the wet, tiny ricks in the sand, making it glitter and glow as the waves rolled onto the shore before receding, only to be replaced by another wave. As I watched, a piece of driftwood floated up with a wave. It wasn't an unusual occurrence; driftwood floated up onto the shore all the time. But what was different about this piece of wood was that it was painted.

My eyes flashed back to the ocean, looking for any sign of a wreck or something but found none. That was weird. Maybe I was just over reacting. It probably just broke off of something.

I shook my head to clear the worries out of my mind. Who needed new worries to worry about? I certainly didn't. I turned my attention back to what was ahead of me, and as soon as I did I gasped.

In front of me was part of a ship's mast, strewn across the sand with part of a sail still attached to it. But it wasn't the mast that caught my attention; it was the man that was still clutching onto it, seemingly unconscious. I pulled my horse to a stop again, squinting my eyes to take a better look. I could tell it was a man, but I couldn't tell if he was unconscious or even dead. I could see a lot of red –oh goodness, I hope that isn't blood – and a lot of white with something on top of his head…

Should I go over there and see if he needed help? I wasn't sure if it was safe…what if he was a ruthless killer, or if this was a trick? I bit my lip nervously, debating on what I should do next. But what if he was in serious trouble? No one would cross this area for days…it wasn't a place where people loved to go. He might die…

As soon as I'd thought that, I decided that it didn't matter if this were a trick or not. How could I abandon someone without checking to see if he needed help? Wasn't it my duty to help my people?

I slid off my horse, pulling its reigns over its head and leading it slowly towards the man. As I got closer, I could make out more things clearly. Like the silver stuff was his hair, plastered wet against his body. He was injured, I could tell, but most of the red was just his kimono. But what made me stop in my tracks was what was attached to his head. Instead of normal, human ears, he had white dog ears. Sure, it was cute in a way, but still. He was demon. What if he were dangerous? What if he liked how humans tasted?

What if I was going to be his next meal?

I shook my head, trying to keep my nerves from getting the better of me. Though he was demon, he would soon be one of my subjects and I would have to help him as well. I couldn't just leave him here, even if he did like to eat humans.

Besides, if he ate me, then I'd be free from all my problems.

I edged closer till I was able to turn him over to see the extent of the damage. I pulled him onto his back and leaned over him, my fingers running lightly over his strong, muscular chest. He had a few stab wounds, but nothing too serious. But still, what had he done to deserve such a stabbing? On his arm he had a bite mark, indicating there had been some vicious biting as well. I looked back up into the man's unconscious face, sympathy overwhelming me. He was sort of cute…why would anyone want to attack such a beautiful man?

I sighed, pulling my hands away from him and instead grabbed hold of him, hoisting him over my shoulder – his blood was probably ruining my dark green kimono; I didn't know how I would explain that to everyone back at the palace—and pushing him up onto the horse before I mounted up behind him, my arms around his waist to keep him from falling off. I sighed, wondering what I was getting myself into as I nudged the horse into a canter towards the thicket.

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I sat by the fireside, staring at the man lying near me under my cloak, his wounds already tended to. Not that he needed much; his wounds were healing fast, confirming even more that he was a demon. I guessed he was a dog demon since there were many similarities to the way Sesshoumaru looked, but I couldn't be sure. I'd been waiting there for a long while and it was well into the night by now, and I wondered when he would wake up. I couldn't leave him until I was sure that he would be fine.

Suddenly the man moaned his hand going up to his head to massage his forehead. My breathing stopped for a moment and my heart exploded into a flurry of furious beating as I slowly inched closer to the man. "Hey, can you hear me? Are you alright? What's your name?" I asked, feeling like an idiot for asking so many questions.

The man's eyebrows furrowed together as he opened his deep, golden eyes and stared up at me. His eyes widened, and I froze, wondering if he was about to attack, but after a moment he relaxed, making me relax a bit automatically as well.

"My name is Inuyasha, yours?" he asked, his voice rough still from a lack of water.

I couldn't help but smile at him softly. "My name is Kagome." I answered, "Would you like some water?" Inuyasha nodded, sitting up a little bit. "Be careful, you may open your wounds again."

Inuyasha shook his head. "I'll be fine, this is nothing." I pondered what he said as I got my canteen out of my saddle bag. I supposed that was true; I'd never known a demon to be injured for very long.

I grabbed the canteen and brought it over to him. He took the canteen and brought it to his lips, taking a long drink from it. I watched him, waiting. When he pulled the canteen away from his lips, I hesitantly asked him, "What happened?"

He looked at me for a moment before shrugging. "I was on a ship and I was attacked."

I could help but let out a little gasp. "Pirates?"

Inuyasha chuckled, though there was no humor to it. "No, though it would have been better if they had been." How could he say that? No one wanted to be attacked by pirates. Hardly anyone survived their attacks. "I was attacked by the people I was supposed to…protect."

Oh…I guess that was pretty bad.

"Why?" I asked after a long, awkward silence. Inuyasha looked at me for a long moment, searching my face with his amazing eyes.

"Because I'm only half demon, and no one wants a half demon." I stared at him in disbelief. How could anyone attack someone because of what they were? It wasn't his fault he was born that way. And…he didn't seem so bad. Why would someone attack someone who seemed perfectly nice….and who was very good looking?

"So what were you doing out here? I haven't been here much, but I don't think that this is a place where people often stroll by, if you know what I mean." Inuyasha suddenly asked, startling me out of my thoughts.

"I was…trying to get away." This seemed to have perked Inuyasha's interest. "Not nessisarily to 'run away', but to get away from my problems for a little while."

"Problems?" he asked, his voice filled with curiosity. Man, he had an amazing voice…

"Well, I'm supposed to marry this guy who I kind of know, but I don't want to marry him. He's not exactly what you would call my ideal 'perfect match'," I didn't know why I was telling him this, but something made me want to. And as soon as I did, I didn't regret that I'd told him.

Inuyasha pondered for a moment. "Weird…I'm in the same predicament…and I know mine much too well…" he shuddered, "Trust me; she's not what I want to spend my life with." We stared at each other for a long time. Suddenly Inuyasha sighed, getting onto his hands and knees and crawling over to me.

"What are you doing?" I asked my voice tight with uncertainty. My heart was stuck in a whirlwind of furious beating, and my breathing quickened. My eyes drifted down to his lips which were getting closer to mine…

Suddenly he was kissing me. My first kiss. And…

It was amazing.

My heart sang as I kissed him back, my lips moving together with his as I wrapped my arms around his still damp neck, pulling myself closer to him as his fingers gently caressed my chin, guiding me.

All too soon we broke apart, gasping for air, leaning our foreheads against one another. "I don't want to marry her," he whispered breathlessly, "I want to marry you." My eyes widened as I looked into his golden eyes, trying to find some joke in there.

"Why?" I asked. I didn't know what to do…sure, I knew I was feeling something for him. It was much more than what I felt for Sesshoumaru, but I wasn't sure if it was love. I hardly knew him…but when I thought about marrying him, the thought made me happy.

"Kagome, do you believe in love at first sight?" he asked me instead of answering my question.

"I don't know…before I would have said no that it was only something that happened in fairy tales, but now…I'm not so sure if I was right." I answered.

"Do you want to marry this guy?" he asked me again.

"Of course not,"

"Then run away with me. Marry me." I stared at him, my mouth dropped open in shock. I knew it was illogical to run away and get married so quickly, but…

Every bit of me wanted to.

But even though I wanted to, I couldn't. Just because I didn't want to marry Sesshoumaru didn't mean that I could abandon my duties to my country. I couldn't risk my countries alliance with the demons. If it caused them to break the treaty, then people would die. And it would be my entire fault. I couldn't do that.

See what I meant when I said Royalty sucked?

"Inuyasha…I can't. I care for you, but I can't abandon my c…my family. It would mean disaster if I abandoned them." Inuyasha sighed, looking away from me. Silence passed for a long time before he finally looked at me, smiling sadly.

"It would be the same for me as well." He admitted, "You're right. But…at least stay with me till night passes over."

I stared back at him, my heart breaking. He was so sad…so much heartbreak…I wanted to chase that away from him. But I knew I wouldn't be able to.

But I had this one night to temporarily chase the sadness from his heart.

"Yes, I'll be happy to do that."

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**This is not really a new story. This is the re-do of a story that I'd done a few years back but then never had the inspiration to do anything with it again. So now that I've gained more experience, I'm tackling it again.**

**Okay, I do have to say this; Kagome and Inuyasha did not do anything with one another. Kagome just kept him company. She'd never do that. She doesn't want to risk the treaty being nullified.**

**So did you guys like it? I liked it much better than the old one. I'll take questions and answer them next chapter!**

**REVIEW PLEASE!!**

**Love**

**Alice**


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